johnnysd

GatorDeb

Finished:




Life-changing book, highly recommended to anybody, really changed my perception of life. I didn't read it in response to any particular event, it just came up during a book club discussion for another book. Some grimaced when they recollected reading it and then I knew I had to read it.

Starting:


I found a Meetup Nonfiction group that has two meetings a month, a dollar each meeting. The books for February are Annie's Ghosts and I am Malala.

PAG

Just finished:

lwhy?

Just Finished:

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson


Really liked this. A bit different than the tv show. Wonderful imagery.

Started:

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Canis Firebrand

Finished

Finished:



Reading:

Dusty Bottoms

The Hero Of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

writer106

johnnysd

Quite a good ending to the trilogy. Have you read his other books?

Dusty Bottoms

Other than the Mistborn books, I have only read The Rithmatist so far, but I bought Steelheart and The Way Of Kings. I started Mistborn based on a recommendation from someone on Goodreads, and I really liked the first two books in the trilogy.

Geofferson

Just cracked the spine on this behemoth:

Greg MacGuffin

Finished:

johnnysd

I really liked Elantris and it is a standalone book. The first book in his new epic The Way of Kings is quite good and the second book is due March 4. It sets the table for what could be a really terrific series. He did good work on the WOT as well especially the first book.

Hiro11

Just finished Max Barry's "Lexicon". It's a thriller about neurolinguistics and conspiracy theories. The central concept is that a group of linguists and scientists have developed linguistic techniques derived from intensive neurological, sociological and personality classification research. These techniques have become so powerful that certain members of the group can control other's actions through words. The process as described in the book is actually fairly plausible. This shadowy group then stumbles upon a hugely powerful weapon, the book is about what happens next. The depictions of the dehumanizing effect of one person having complete control over another person's actions (even to the point of suicide) as described in the book are very disturbing and realistic.

As any Stephenson fan can probably tell, it borrows a lot from books like "Snow Crash" (the genesis of my user name here, BTW).

lattethunder

Coral

Finished:




Reading:

kd5

Finished The Remnant: On the Brink of Armageddon (Left Behind #10), Started Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages (Left Behind #11):





Getting sick to death of this, be glad when it's done.

PAG

Just finished:

Canis Firebrand

Finished:



Reading:

Nick Danger

Taking a break from Vanity Fair.

Reading the public domain version of Skylark of Space by EE Doc Smith. It's very different from the book version that I've read before. Smith wrote it in 1919, but wasn't able to find a publisher for several years. It's clunky, but he invents a lot of what became science fiction. I'm doing parallel reading with the book. The Project Gutenberg version has the original artwork, which is cool.

Ginwen

Canis Firebrand

I got about 20% into that book and just couldn't continue.. I'm not sure if it was the story, the way its written, or if I just wasn't in the right mindset. I plan on revisiting it again as a friend of mine goes on about how good of a book it is. Usually I've liked things that he's recommended to me or that I read because I saw him read it on his GoodReads list.

GatorDeb

The Giver is one of two books that I have read multiple times my whole life (two for Catcher in the Rye, three for The Giver). I really have to go back and read the other one in the series, which I found out about within the past few years.

Hiro11

Overall, it's not a perfect book. It's a transitional book, Stephenson was moving away from mid-90s cyberpunk and moving towards deeper explorations of philosophy, sociology and history. He seems to throw in whatever he was thinking about at the time. As a result, the book is lean on plot and unevenly paced. In particular, the sections with Nell drag, too many important story lines are only hazily sketched in and then dropped. Overall, there's a lot of discussion and too little action (something that happened a lot in early Stephenson).

The book does have some interesting things to say about Stephenson's perceptions of why some cultures succeed, others fail and still others are just weird. Also, the seed / feed nano-technology described is an excellent metaphor for Maoist revolutionary politics vs. the top down Confucionism. These are arguably bigger ideas than the ones explored in "Snow Crash" and Stephenson handles them intelligently.

With Stephenson, I always say start with "Cryptonomicon".

lwhy?

Finished:

The Giver by Lois Lowry


Really enjoyed it!

Started:

Serena by Ron Rash